Illuminated sign



Jan.27.l925. v L524A46 W. M EACHER ILLUMINATED SIGN Filed Feb. 4, 1924 Etra mmmmmgmm @mmmmmgmmg L w num VVVTDHESEHES Qzgmmugl%;

n A-rroRNEY Patented Jan. 27, 192.5.

WALTER nnAcHnn, or sr. CATHARINES, oNrAnro,

CANADA.

ILLUMINATED SIGN.

Application filed February 4, 1924. Serial No. 690,568.

'To all whom t may concern:

Be it known that l, WALTER MEACHER, a citizen of Canada, residing at St.Catharines, in the Province of Ontario and Dominion of Canada, haveinvented a new and useful Illuminated Sign, of which the following is aspecification.

rlihis invention relates to illuminated signs of the double face type,in which the light emitting units are arranged ,between two sign plates,each having a series of letters or other characters formed of opalescentglass, or the like, secured to their inner faces with raised portionsforming thel character strokes, which project through correspondingstenciled openings in the plates, so that they may be visible from anyangle.

@ne of the important objects of the invention is to form the opalescentcharacters in such a manner that in addition to the di'usion of thelight as it passes therethrough, that portion of the light, .which isreflected from the inner surface of the glass, is completely diused, sothat the entire space within the sign plates is filled with llght ofsubstantially uniform Aintensity, and as a consequence all of thecharacter strokes on both faces of the sign are uniformly lightedthroughout, and there are no spots or regio-ns thereon brighter thanother regions. v In other words, the light reflected by the glass on oneside is not prevented from 'shining coating tinged with blue.

through the letters on the other side, but all the reflected light is sodiffused that in addif tion to increasing the illumination obtained froma light of given intensity, the uniformity of theeect is enhanced.

-Another important object of the inventionl is to provide-signcharacters, which in the day time appear white from reected sunlight,but which have an inner facing orl whereby at night to neutralize theyellow rays produced by the usual lamp with aclear glass bulb, withouthebnecesslty of using expensive lblue glass ul s.

rlhe distinctive features of my invention" will be better understoodfrom the following detailed description, which is to be read inconnection with the accompanying drawing, and which explains theCprinciples upon kwhich the inventlon is base In the drawing: Figure 1is a front elevation of a sign constructed in tion.

Figure 2 is a transverse section thereof.

Figure 3 is a rear elevation of one of the characters which may be used.

Figure 4 is a side elevation of the character shown in Figure 3.

F1gure5 is a magnified view of a portion of the rear surface of acharacter, such as is shown in Figure 3. i

accordance with my inven- Figure 6 is a magnified sectional view`through one of the character strokes, illustratlng one way of formingthe inner surface tinged with blue.

Figure 7 is a view similar to Figure 6, but showing a modifiedconstruction.

Figure 8 is a view similar to Fi ures 6 and 7, but illustrating anothermodi cation.

he sign in which my invention is embodied includes spaced face 4plates10 of sheet metal, or other opaque material, havmg their edges connectedby strips 11, so as to form a rectangular enclosed space, within which aseries of electric lamps 12 are supported. A series of letters or othercharacters of rectangular formation are secured to the rear side of eachface plate 10y by means o-f suitable cleats 13. The character strokes 14on the several characters are 1n relief, and when the characters aresecured in the manner indicated, these character strokes project through'corresponding stenciled openings 15, so that they are clearly visiblefrom any angle, while the remaining portions of the characters arehidden from vlew by the opaque face plates 10.

In Figures 3 and 4 li have indicated by the numeral 17 one of thecharacters, which may be used in connection with the sign platesillustrated in Figures 1 and 2. This character, as shown, is formed withits character strokes 18 in relief, and the rear of the inner face ofthe entire character is corrugated in two directions, at right angles toeach other. This peculiar formation is best shown in Figure 5, where thehorizontal lines 19 -and vertical lines 2O denote the respectivecorrugations. Y

By reason of these corrugations, as described, the rays of'light whichare reflected from theinner faces of the characters are diffused in` alldirections, so that the entire A tire extent will appear uniform, Thelights ures land 2. To a spectator looking at the- A 12 are preferablysupported from a bar 16 extending from end to end of the si midwaybetween the plates 10, and the light' bulb is preferably located betweeneach pair of opposed characters, as illustrated in Figsign from eitherside, however, the portion of the letter immediately in line with thebulb 12. will appear no brighter than the rest.

It is desirable that the character strokesv shouldappear in the daytimeas pure white, in order to be most plainly visible against a darkbackground in reflected sunlight. All electric light, however, which isproduced by the passage of an electric current through a lfilament,contains anl excess of yellowrays, so that in order to cause the :signto ap P031' pure white at night, light bulbs of blue glass haveheretofore been fused. These bulbs are comparatively expensive, and mustbe frequently replaced. In accordance with my invention, however, anordinary bulb with clear glass is used, and the excess of yellow rays isneutralized by the use' of blue glass in the character strokes, or theentire character is tinged with blue.

In Figure 6, the character 21 is represented as -having a characterstroke 22. The inner face of the charac-iis covered with corrugations23, and the inner face of the character is lined with a blue flash. Thisform of character is produced by gathering a ball o-f opal glass on theend of a glass-blowers rod. Thisfis dipped into a pot of molten bluegla, which puts a thin coating of blue glass on the outside of the opalglass.- Next the glass is blown into large cylinders, the same'as windowglass, andthe cylinder-'s are then split and rolled into sheets with theopal glass on one side, and a thin coating of blue glass on the otherside. The sheet glass is then corrugated in any suitable manner, andformed into characters, keeping the blue on the inside of the characterplates.

In the modification shown in Figure -`7 the character plate 21*l isformed with character strokes 22 and is corrugated on the inside, asindicated at 23a, and is lined with a coating of blue glass 24, which isformed by a spray while the glass is still in a partially molten state.This form, if the spra ing is .carefully done, will give substantia lythe same effect as the form lshown in Figure 6.

In the form shown in Figure 8, the character plate 21b is formed withthe character stroke 22", and the inner face is corrugated, as shown at23h, while blue coloring matter is introduced into and forms aconstituent part of the opal glass itself. L

As a result of the corrugations, the light is uniformly diffused. andthe maximum illuminating effect is obtained, while the excess of yellowrays is neutralized bv the blue color within they sign charactersthemselves, and an ordinary tungsten bulb may be used for theillumination.

While I have shown and described the preferred arrangement of thevarious constituent parts of the sign, and the preferred methods ofmanufacturing the sign characters from which the sign is made up, it isto be understood that these are merely for the purpose of illustration,and that various modifications may be made therein without departingfrom the salient features of the invention as expressed in the claims.

What is claimed is:

1. An illuminated sign, comprising, in combination, a stenciled faceplate, a glass character plate having character strokes projectingthrough the stencil, and a source of light behind the character plate,said character plate having an outer layer of opalescent glass with itsinner face corrugated in two directions and overlaid by a uniform innerlayer of blue tinted glass.

2. An illuminated sign, comprising, in combination, `a stenciled faceplate, a glass character plate having character strokes projectingthrough the stencil, said character strokes having a smooth outer faceof opalescent glass, and an inner face of glass corrugated in twodirections substantially at right angles to each other and having a bluetinge. Y

3. An illuminated sign, comprising, in combination, a pair of stenciledface plates having their edges connected to form a closed space,character plates behind each face plate and having character strokesprojecting throughI the stencil, each character stroke having a smoothouter face of opalescent glass and a corrugated inner face composed ofglass having a blue tinge, and means for supporting a light within saidclosed space.

4. A character plate for illuminated signs having character strokes inrelief, each of said character strokes being composed of an outer layerof opalescent glass, with its inner face concave and corrugated in twodirections and overlaid by a uniform layerof blue tinted glass.

5. A character plate for illuminated signs having character strokes inrelief, each of said strokes having a smooth outer face of opalescentglass, and having its inner face corrugated in two directionssubstantially at riglht angles to each other and composed of blue tintedlass.

6. An illuminated sign, comprising, in combination, a pair of stenciledface plates having their edges connected to form a closed space,character plates behind each face plate, each character plate havingcharacter strokes in relief projecting through the stencil, the outerface being smooth and the ght angles to each other, and a source of hghtlocated in the space between the plates, said character plates havingblue coloring matter to neutralize the excess of yellow rays in thelight passing therethrough.

7. An illuminated sign, comprising, in combination, a. air of stenciledface plates having their e ges connected to form a closed space,character plates behind each face plate and having character strokes inrelief projecting through the stencil', the

character plate of one face being opposite to a corresponding characterlate on the other face, each character plate aving a smooth) outer faceand an inner face corrugated in two directions substantially at rightangles to each other, the inner face of each character plate being linedwith a blue flash and a source. of light substantially midway betweeneach pair of opposed character plates and on a line drawn between thecenters thereof..

8. An illuminated sign, comprising, in combination, a pair of stenciledface plates having their edges connected to form a closed space,character lates behind each face plate and an'an op osite to each other,each character plate havin on its outer face a layer of opalescent g andhaving its inner face corru ated in two directions substantiall at rigtangles to each other and formed ofY blue tinted glass, and a source oflight substantiall midway be tween each pair of opposed c aracter platesand on a line drawn between the centers thereof.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my own, I have hereto atlixedmy signature.

WALTER MEACHER.

